Undertale: Quarantine
by SweetBrownie
Summary: Sans and Papyrus are left in a cruel world to fend for themselves. With no parents, Sans are forced to protect the only family member he have left. (Will not work on this much, will work mostly on other things. Rated M just to be sure.)
1. Chapter 1: Timetable

Year 1994 – Sans Gaster is born to Windings Gaster and Arial Gaster.

Year 1995 – Prince Asriel Dreemurr is born to king Asgore Dreemurr and queen Toriel Dreemurr.

Year 1996 – The barrier that cages the monsters in under MT. Ebott is destroyed. The humans, not having seen monster for several hundred years, gets shocked of them being still alive. As all magic in human kind have disappeared the humans gets afraid and suspicious of the monsters' power. An investigation on how far the magic goes takes place, and all the monsters are moved to a quarantine zone. Most belongings are confiscated. The monsters are not allowed to mingle with humans in any way of fear of conflict.

King Asgore Dreemurr and queen Toriel Dreemurr are appointed as the representatives for the monsters, and are the only ones to leave the quarantine. Even so, the pair are only to be outside the quarantine on a very limited basis. A discussion between the humans and the monsters starts. The discussions start poorly because of the humans' fear of them.

A makeshift hospital is set up, but many of the medical equipment and medicine have been confiscated. That they have neither electricity nor running water doesn't help. A certain amount of food is contributed to every monster family once every month, but it's very little.

Year 1997 – A combined school and preschool within the quarantine is founded for the monster children. School supplies and toys are scarce, due to most of that kind has been confiscated.

Sans Gaster starts to go to the combined school and preschool that is within the quarantine.

Year 2000 – Angry riots within the quarantine starts to fire up as the discussions with the humans goes slow. The monsters want out of the quarantine, but they are refused by the human. After a public speech to his people within the quarantine, king Asgore Dreemurr is able to calm the monsters down a bit after a few months riots. The disorder goes down even further when queen Toriel Dreemurr takes several trips around the quarantine and makes sure that everyone are alright.

Sans Gaster starts to show magic abilities. Most prominent is his ability to teleport. Windings Gaster and Arial Gaster warns his son not to ever teleport outside the quarantine zone in fear of what the humans might do to Sans. Otherwise the two parents start to train their firstborn to protect himself with magic.

Year 2005 – Papyrus Gaster is born to Windings Gaster and Arial Gaster. Arial Gaster dies giving birth to her second son, due to infection and to too little medical equipment.

Year 2006 – One night, due to an accident within the quarantine, a fire starts. It kills and injures a lot of monsters. With the help of magic the monsters successfully puts the fire out. The humans didn't help, even though they had the recourses and the men to do so. This only fuels the anger that the monsters have for the humans, but even so king Asgore Dreemurr and queen Toriel Dreemurr tries to stay positive and tries to the best of their ability to keep their people calm.

Year 2007 – Humans starts to take monsters away in different raids, not telling anyone neither where they are taken nor why. In one of these raids Windings Gaster is taken, leaving Sans Gaster and Papyrus Gaster without any parents to take care of them. Sans Gaster, now 12 year old, starts to take care of himself and his 2 year old brother.

Year 2008 – Present year. Sans Gaster, 13 years of age. Papyrus Gaster, 3 years of age.


	2. Chapter 2

Sans hear a faint voice in the dark. It is to quiet to recognize at first, but when it grows louder he knows who it belongs to. "Dad?" Sans wonders and looks around, but he can't see his dad anywhere.

"Sans, my child! Take your brother and hide, right now!" the voice demands.

"What?" Sans is confused. What does his dad mean? Why should he and his brother hide? And where?

"Don't question me. Hide, now!" There is a hurried and clear-cut tone in Wingdings' voice.

Then Sans starts to see where he is. He is sitting in a big carton box, together with his smaller brother. It is dark in the box, as the opening over his head is closed. But a small streak of light from in-between the flaps of the opening are giving him some sight of the inside of the box. He gets the distinct feeling that he should remain quiet, and that he does.

There are sounds coming from outside the box. Sans recognize it as footsteps of several boots getting closer, and they stop right outside the box. "Wingdings Gaster?" an unknown voice asks. It sounds cruel, and demands attention.

"Yes? What might you want with me?" Sans can't miss the fact that his dad sounds nervous and scared, far more so than the boy have ever heard of the adult before.

"You have to come with us."

"Why? Have I done something wrong?"

"Just come with us."

There is a short pause, where Sans figures that his father thinks for a bit. When Wingdings answers he sounds determine, but yet a little afraid of what is to come. "No, I – I will not come with you."

"I never said you have any choice in the matter, Gaster. Come with us."

"I won't."

"Men, seize him!"

Sans can hear a lot of shuffling, and there is a lot of yelling. Then there is the sound of magic being used, before a few shots are fired. Sans can imagine what is happening, and to his fear he sees in his inner eye that his father starts to fight the strangers of and then gets shot. Sans gets terrified and his eyes starts to glow blue as he is ready to use his magic in case he is discovered, but keeps quiet. But, unfortunately, his two year old brother gets upset with the noise and starts to sniffle. In a try to keep him quiet, Sans hugs Papyrus closely and tries to soothe him without making any louder sound himself.

Then everything gets quiet outside the box. For the longest time Sans is to scared to move, and he sits where he is with his little brother in his grasp. His eyes never stop glowing. But in the end he forces himself to move, to stand up and carefully open up the flaps of the box to look out. "Dad?" he asks, but the tent that his family has been living in for years now is empty.

That's when he sees it: the blood. And he instantly understands that it is his dad's blood. There is a big puddle in the middle of the tent, and a small trail of it leading outside as if Wingdings have been dragged out while injured.

Sans sits down again, letting the flaps of the box close over him. Papyrus starts to sniffle again, as if he feels the growing sadness that starts to fill Sans. "It's ok, bro," Sans says out loud to Papyrus, as tears falls down from both the brothers eyes. Sans doesn't want to cry, he want to show his brother strength, but he can't stop himself. "It's ok, they are gone." Papyrus doesn't want to get soothed, however, and starts to whine and cry even harder.

As the world fades away, the words that Sans says to his little brother still echoes. "I'm here, bro. I won't leave. I will never leave you."

Sans opens his eyes, slowly coming out of his sleep. At his side Papyrus lies curled up close to Sans ribs. Realizing quickly that he has been dreaming the same dream again, as so many times before, Sans sighs. Looking up at the roof of the same tent that his family have always have lived in, he is painfully aware that there are still signs of the puddle of blood in the middle of the floor. It has been about a year since their dad has been taken away. Sans have no idea where he is or if he is ok.

The simple mattress that they use for a bed has many bumps in it, but they have grown used to it. It is better than to lie directly on the floor. Bringing his younger brother even closer to his ribs, almost making Papyrus lie on top of him, Sans wonders what will happen to them.

Papyrus cringes a little in his sleep, and Sans wonders if his little brother, now three years old, have any nightmares too of that day. Rubbing Papyrus' little head, Sans quietly promises that his little brother never will be alone. That he, Sans, will always be there. And if any humans come to take them away, Sans will make sure that the humans will not get hold of them.

"I will never let anything happen to you, bro. I wouldn't **bear** it." Sans chuckles a bit at his own wording, knowing that the word bear have two different meanings.

* * *

Sans and Papyrus goes hand in hand in-between the tents. They are on their way to one of the bigger tent that serves as a combined school and preschool. It is always fun for Sans to take his little brother to the part that is a preschool, as Sans then knows that his little brother have others in his own age to play with. And he has also allowed to play with whatever toys there is there. And all in view from the other part of the tent, that is for the older children to learn different things.

"Hey, Sans!" a voice calls when the two brothers comes near the big tent. Sans knows the voice very well. It is Undyne, who is a few years older than Sans. She stands at the big tent's entrance and waves the two brothers to hurry up. "Come on, you are gonna be late. Today's the king's gonna visit."

"I'm coming, pal," Sans calls back and waves.

As they enter Sans brings Papyrus to the corner where the preschool is held. Five grownup are charged to take care of 37 preschoolers, including Papyrus who is the far youngest in the group. In reality Papyrus is far to young to go to preschool, but Sans is to afraid to leave his little brother for too long alone. And the lessons of the school usually takes several hours.

"Now, be good, kid," Sans says to his little brother and gives him a close hug. "I'll be just over there if you need anything." Sans points over to the school benches where he and all other kids that are a bit older sits.

And true to Undyne's word king Asgore Dreemurr comes to visit the school. His son, Asriel, who also goes to the school, becomes visibly very glad to see his dad in front of the class. Asriel is friend to many of the other kids, but Sans doesn't really want to be friend with him. Sans have a somewhat distaste for the royal family, mainly because they seem to try to get along with the humans so hard. If there is something Sans hates it is the humans.

 _They have taken my and Papyrus' freedom from us and our parents. They force us to live in poor conditions, and they give us little to no food. Why does the royal family even try to be friends with the humans?_

Sans gives an irritated puff at the thought of having a human as a friend. The humans have taken everything from the monster, and treats Sans' kind as some kind of sentint animals.

"Today we will learn more about the humans," Sans' teatcher tells the class. "From the king himself, no less. So be quiet now and listen carefully."

Sans rolls his eyes. _What is there to know?_ The humans are cruel and dimwitted. And there is surely no way to change them, or their minds. They are also millions of them, far more than there are monsters. But what the humans lacks right now are magic, something the monsters still have.

"Humans are often scared of what they don't know," the king tells the class, which Sans think is the understatement of the century. "It is up to us to show them that there are no need for them to fear us. Patience, kindness and understanding are the right way to move forward with them."

 _Patience? Kindness? UNDERSTANDING?_ Sans only grows angry of the kings words. _How can he possibly think that?_ Sans' hands unwillingly forms into angry fists. It is a pain for him to listen to these delusions, or what he at least thinks are delusions.

 _Humans are BAD!_ For Sans that's a fact. A fact that can't be changed.

Looking over to the preschool part of the tent, Sans' eyes longer good and long at his little brother. _No human are to ever lat their finger on Papyrus. I won't allow it!_

"But, I'm happy to say that all humans are not against us," the king tells the children with an happy voice. "There are people out there who wants humans and monsters to live together."

Sans can't believe what he's hearing! Humans that wants to live in in peace with monsters? That doesn't make any sense to Sans. All the humans he have met thinks that monsters are beneath them. So there is hard to believe that there are humans that thinks otherwise. _So is there really people out there that really care?_

Sans shakes his head in denial.

* * *

A few days a weak Sans is outside and trains his magic. It can change from teleporting back and forth within the quarantine, creating blasters and fire them onto the ground, or creating different patterns of bones out of thin air.

His magical strenght and endurance to use said magic increases all the time. But he doesn't train more than half an hour at a time; he must go back home and check on his little brother. And he always tries to train in secret, as he doesn't want for any humans to see what he can do.

Sans wish that he can train his little brother as well, so that Papyrus can protect himself. But Papyrus isn't old enough; his magical abilities haven't showed yet. Usually a monsters magic comes around the age of five to seven.

Why humans have lost their ability to use magic is beyond Sans. They where the ones that put up the barrier in the entrance of the big cave under MT. Ebott all those hundreds of years ago, after all. But from what little Sans have seen, and if the tales around the quarantine are true, the humans have come up with many different things that fills the void that their magic have left.

Like guns, for example. With no magic to protect them the humans rely a lot on guns to protect themselves with. Sans have seen a few guns in his life; the few humans that come into the quarantine often have guns on them. Threatening monsters with them.

That's why Sans think it is so important to train with his magic. If he is to have any chance against the humans and their guns, his magic capabilities must be in top notch.

* * *

Sans can remember both of his parents clearly, while Sans have only a hazy memory of their dad. The older brother have no pictures of neither their mom nor dad, so he can't show his little brother how they looked like.

What Sans _can_ do is to talk about them, though. Telling Papyrus everything he remembers, their mom and dad comes to life again and again. He can't bear to talk about their mother's death or when their dad was taken, however. It hurts to much to remember those parts, and Sans fears that if he would tell Papyrus about it the older brother might start to cry.

Sans also tells his younger brother about the tales that their parents told him when he was younger; about the great war between humans and monster that took place so long ago, about the underfell where the monsters was forced to live for several hundreds of years and about how the monsters finally gets out of there. And most of all, Sans tells his brother all he knows about the humans. Their dad have told Sans a bit about the human; that they are dangerous to monsters, mostly. And that Sans tells Papyrus as well, but it seems that even so Papyrus wants to think the best of them.

Papyrus would have hundred of questions sometimes, but sometime he would only be quiet and listen.

These talks usually takes place at night, when the brothers are to go to sleep. And the stories are as best to tell if it is raining. The sound of the waterdrops on the tent's roof and the damp, cold and wet air that would blow thru the entrance makes it particular cozy to lie on the mattress close together.

Those moments are Sans' favorites. And seeing Papyrus' face during those times, the older skeleton is sure of that his brother feels the same way.

* * *

It is a saturday, and the school is closed for the weekend. It is the end of autumn, and everyone can feel how it gets colder every day. The clothes that the monsters gave to use have been brought from the underground all those years ago, and there is no chance to get new ones. The clothes are worn and old, patched with pieces of cloth where there have been holes. There isn't thicker clothes that are adabted for the colder weather for everyone, so the jackets and overalls that do exist are usually reserved for the smallest of children and oldest of the retired.

Sans is outside with Papyrus and Undyne. The smallest of the skeletonbrothers have an oversized jacket on together with a red scarf. The older brother have a thinner coatee that doesn't give that much warmth. But Sans doesn't mind the cold that much, only that Papyrus have it good and warm. Undyne wears an even thinner overall that have patches everywhere.

The three of them are bored, and one of the few things there is to amuse them are to stroll around inbetween the tents within the quarantine and observe the daily chores that the other monsters go thru. It is either that or try to do the homework they have been given from their teachers the day before.

"Sans, have you ever seen the outside of the quarantine?" Papyrus asks his bigger brother.

Papyrus usually is very curious like that, and would now and then overwhelm Sans with questions. The older brother would answer them to the best of his abilities, but some of them could be really hard. This one subject that Papyrus starts to get into, though, is very sensitive for Sans. Namely of the humans and the human world.

"I was outside for a short while when all monsterkind was moved to the quarantine zone, I guess," Sans answers, a bit vague in the tone as he don't really want to talk about the human world. Not that he knows much about it, but he despise it anyway for the fact that the humans live there and that they force all monsters to live all cramped up in the quarantine. "But I was too young to remember anything of it."

"How big do you think it is out there?" Papyrus wonders, as he gets a wounderous expression on his face. "Do the humans have it as crowded out there as we have in here?"

Sans doesn't really know. "They surely have it more spacious than we have it," is the only answer he gives his brother, pouting at the thought that the humans have the better than them.

"My dad have said that there is entire empty spaces where there is nothing but grass out there," Undyne says, smiling faintly at the thought. "Apparenly they are called a 'plain'."

"Wowie, is there really?" Papyrus eyes glitters. "I want to see it!"

"I don't know about that, Undyne," Sans frowns as he looks over to his friend. "That would just be ' **plain** ' stupid."

"Are you calling my dad stupid?!" Undyne asks, a bit enraged of the accusation that Sans seems to give her father. She doesn't care of the pun that he just cracked.

"No, that it would be nothing but grass there," the older skeletonbrother correctly her. "Why not use anything useful with the space?"

"Maybe it is for when people wants to be alone," Papyrus offers.

"Maybe, kiddo," Sans answers and gives Papyrus a pat on the head. "Maybe."

After walking for a bit Undyne calls the older brother over. "Sans, look at this!" she says with a exited tone and holds out her hand, clearly holding something in her palm. Sans walks over to her and look closer to what she have, leaving Papyrus alone for a bit.

"A rock?" he says and gives her a deadpanned expression, quietly wondering why she thinks it is so special.

"It's so flat and round that it looks like a disk."

"... do you even know what a disk is?"

"Yeah, my dad told me what it is."

Sans hums for a bit as he observes the rock. "Bro," he calls and starts to turn around. "Come and take a look at this ro-" He stops in the middle of the word. Looking back at where he have left his brother he sees that Papyrus isn't there anymore.

"Pap?" Sans calls and turns his head left and right in a try to look where his brother might have gone to. "Buddy?" Undyne also looks where the small skeleton might have gone to, but fails, too. A small fear crawls into Sans' soul; Papyrus is a good boy who usually doesn't just walk away like this.

Sans suddenly hears his brother's voice, and looking around a tent the older brother sees Papyrus standing a small distance away. Relief shoots thru Sans, but that feeling doesn't last very long. Seeing who Papyrus is speaking to makes Sans' eyesockets go wide as he gets really scared and angry all at the same time.

The young skeleton talks to a human.

A _human_.

Human guards sometimes comes thru the quarantine to check if the monsters are up to no good. They usually use uneccessery violence while doing so. And they often comes in groups in four to five. Sure enough, there is four humans standing behind the human that Papyrus talks to, making them five in total. All clad in uniforms and each with a weapon at their side.

Hurrying over to them, Sans can see from quite a distance that the human that Papyrus talks to doesn't like to be addressed from a monster. As Sans gets closer he can hear what his little brother is saying.

"... and I was just wondering if you can bring me and my brother to the outside of the quarantine to take a short look," Papyrus ends, looking up with hope at the human.

There is no hate or fear in Papyrus' face or voice, just friendliness that only a three year old child can posses. He is to young to hate, to small to understand that it is the humans fault that he is stuck within the quarantine. As far as Papyrus knows, this is just how the world is.

Sans, though, knows better.

"I don't think so, monster," the human answers. "Now, run along or there might be trouble for you."

"But -" Papyrus begins, but That's when his brother comes up to them.

"Pap, you heard them," Sans tells the young skeleton. "We better not distract these..." The older brother eyes the humans, especially the one that Papyrus have talked to, with a suspicious and angry look. "... _humans_." The last word is spoken with such distaste that it could as well be a swear.

Papyrus looks down in dissapointed and sadness. "Okay," he says in a quiet voice.

"Pfft," the human scoffs. "Idiot monster kids."

Sans and Papyrus looks on when the humans walks away, and behind the two brothers Undyne stands there. She have surely seen the whole exchange, but haven't moved to intervened. As soon as the humans dissapears behind a few tents and out of earshot Sans turns to his little brother.

"Papyrus, why the heck did you talk to a human for?" The bigger brother asks, with anger in his face and getting a stern voice. " _Never_ talk to them. Never _ever_. They are bad." Sans gets so angry that his pupills dissapears in his eyesocket and he gets a terrible frown.

"I just wanted-" Papyrus starts, but is cut short.

"I don't care about what you wanted! Just don't talk to humans." Even more anger swells in Sans' soul when he says that, but the moment after the words are out he regrets his harsh tone.

Seeing the tears that starts to form in the corner of his brother's eyes makes Sans calm down a bit. The older skeleton gets his pupills back, and a sigh escapes him. He kneels down and embraced Papyrus.

"I'm sorry for that, Pap," Sans starts. "But you have to learn to stay away from them. They are bad. They are the ones that keeps is in here. And they are never letting us out of here if they can help it."

Sans breaks away from the hug to look Papyrus in the eyes. "I just want to keep you safe. You are the only family I have left."

Whiping his tears away with is tubby little fists, Papyrus nods in understanding. "I'm sorry, brother," he says.

"It's okay," Sans sighs. "Just don't do it again." He stands up and takes hold of his brother's one hand. "Come and look at the stone Undyne have found," he encourages and steers Papyrus back toward the friend.

* * *

The snow lies in drives outside the long row of tents within the quarantine. There are also much snow on the tents as well, weighting them down so that it is hard for the grownups to stand up straight within. But Sans have no such troubles when he gets inside his and Papyrus' tent and he probably never will either. He is incredibly short for his age, and he will remain short for all his life. Even though their parent has given the bigger amount of the food to the two brothers, it never seemed to help. He is just short.

But what he lacks in size he makes up for in magic strength. He is incredibly adept at magic, especially at teleporting. He can teleport from one end of the quarantine to the other, and in the lager hears of his life he has felt like he can teleport even longer distances. "To bad mom and dad forbid me to teleport outside the quarantine," Sans pout when he gets closer to the simple mattress where his little brother sits and plays with a few rocks and cones

Today it is Christmas Eve, a time of love and tradition. And, if the monsters have been in any other circumstances, there have been plenty of presents. Especially to the children. But due to a scarcity to almost everything, there is not much to give to anyone, Christmas as well as birthday. Sans doesn't care much of getting many presents himself, as far as he remembers he have never really gotten that many presents. He has only been two years when the barrier under MT. Ebott was destroyed. But he does mind when it comes to Papyrus. Sans feel ashamed to not being able to get presents for him, and that Papyrus is only able to play with rocks, cones and sticks.

"Hey, bro," Sans greets his little brother and takes a seat at Papyrus' side. "Whatcha doing?"

"Playing family," Papyrus answers, his tubby little three-year-old fingers holding onto two rocks. "These two are us. Me and you."

Sans smiles heartily at his brother, but it doesn't reach his eyes. His eyes are instead sad. Papyrus was only a few months old when his mother died, so of course he wouldn't remember her. And he was two year old when his dad was taken. Sure, it was only one year ago, soon to be two years, but for a three year old it is an eternity. Papyrus has already begun to forget his own dad.

"You don't want to do something special?" Sans wonders, mostly to get himself of these sad thoughts.

"Oh, can you play with me?" Papyrus begs. "Pretty please?"

"Of course, kiddo. What- **eve** -r you want."

"Saaaans! No puns around Christmas!"

"What? That one was good." Sans picks up a cone and observes it. "And it _is_ Christmas _Eve_ , after all." Instantly he remembers how he has been playing with these things as well when he was a bit older than Papyrus. He remembers that his mom or dad sometimes would join in, too. "What do you wanna play?"

They play for a moment with the rocks and the cones for a while. And Sans cherishes every moment of it. He doesn't want Papyrus to worry about anything; it isn't his job to do so. It is Sans' job, as the elder brother. And he has cause to worry. The food rations that usually got to their family every month haven't come since their dad was taken away. Instead the two of them have been dependent on other family's generosity. But as there isn't much food to sustain the other families, it leaves almost nothing to the brothers.

But that's okay. If only Sans is able to get enough to his baby brother, everything is okay. Sans himself gets a small bite here and there, and he's always starving, but even so he gives everything he can to Papyrus.

* * *

It is the night to the new year. It have gone another year for the monsters to be stuck within the quarantine. _A whole fifteen years for monsterkind to cast away in this dump,_ Sans thinks to himself with sarcasm. _Whoop-de-doo!_

He stands outside his and his brother's tent, looking up at the sky. It is a cloudless night, and the tiny stars and the big moon lights it all up. It is very still, so still so that he can hear how his neigbhours wishes each other a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Papyrus is inside and sleeps on the mattress, resting peacefully by himself. He will be four this year. A whole four years old! In another year he might as well show some abilities in magic. Sans remembers when his own magic started to show. He would teleport without mening to do so, dissapearing into thin air in one end of the tent to only reapper in the other end.

Looking back towards the entrance of the tent, seeing the sleeping figure that is his brother in the darkness within. Will it be like that for Papyrus? Will he just start to will bones into existance when he doesn't mean to? Sans is eager to see the day it happens, as then Papyrus can more easily protect himself. Magic is an important tool to a monster.

A disturbance some tents away interrupts Sans thoughts. A voice is screaming out something that he can't really hear, but as it comes closer he do hear what the voice is saying.

"The prince! The prince!" The voice sounds sad, almost hysterical, as the person that owns it hurries thru the quarantine. Sans catches a glimpse of him thru the tents as he runs past. The person, a lean, thin monster that closely resembles a dog, keeps on screaming and draws the attention of every monster within earshot. "Prince Asriel is dead! God, save us, prince Asriel is dead!"

Sans is shocked. _The prince? Dead?_ Can it be true. How did that happen? Sans saw Asriel alive in school only one and a half week ago, before it closed for the holidays. _What can possibly have happened?_

Glancing quickly back ar his brother to make sure that Papyrus is still asleep, Sans quickly dashes between the tents and towards the royal family's home. The king, queen and prince have a very big tent, even a bigger one than that of the school. It is composed of a few smaller, regular tents that have been put together, making it bigger than the others.

There is a big crowd gathering outside the entrance. Sad murmurs comes from it, and hushed voices only repeats what the monster that ran thru the quarantine have said. Seeing that he can't get thru this obsticle, Sans' eyes turns blue as he teleports to the other side of it. Appearing in the entrance, the skeleton sees king Asgore and queen Toriel leaning over the unresonsive body of their son with tears rolling down their cheeks. Asriel, or what's left of him, have blue marks in the face.

"I'm sorry, my child," Asgore says quietly and rubs Asriel's cheek. "I'm so sorry."

Sans can only stare at the scene, with a slightly scared and worried expression on his face, while he struggles to understand the cause for this is and what the consequences of it might be.


End file.
